Ultrasound operates by creating an image from sound in three steps—producing a sound wave, receiving echoes, and interpreting those echoes to create an image. Invasive ultrasonic apparatus is known for imaging areas of the human body and has found many diagnostic and therapeutic uses such as guiding therapeutic instruments through a catheter to a field of view within a human body. As will be described below, a wireless implantable transducer is known for suturing to the heart organ. A transmitter transmits power and control information to the implantable transducer. An output of heart function is provided on an oscilloscope. Moreover, image-guided catheters are generally known for intravascular or endoscopic or other guide wire or penetrating approach to reach and then travel through body lumen. An image-guided may be used to deliver a tool or another item to a target area within a patient, for example, to deliver a vascular stent to target site in a vascular system where there is impeded blood flow or to deliver a scalpel to remove suspicious matter during endoscopic procedures.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,361 to Seward et al. discloses a volumetric image ultrasound transducer underfluid catheter system. FIGS. 2-9 and 11-12 and their attendant description, for example, suggest specific methods of intervention for imaging purposes in the vicinity of a human heart. To reach such an area of interest within a human body, an ultrasound imaging and hemodynamic catheter may be advanced via the superior vena cava of the heart to a tricuspid valve annulus. A distal end of a cylindrical body includes a guide wire access port and a guide wire provides a means of assuring that the catheter reaches a target human heart for imaging. A surgical tool may be fed through the catheter to the area imaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,644 to Kojima of Aug. 29, 1978, may represent an early development of a miniature implantable ultrasonic echosonometer. An ultrasonic transducer may be attached, for example, by stitches to an organ, for example, the heart of a living body that is to be measured. The ultrasonic transmitter/receiver circuit communicates via antenna to an external “readout” device such as an oscilloscope. No battery is required for the echosonometer. Induced power may be received from a power receiver loop for powering the ultrasonic transmitter/receiver circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,373 issued Oct. 3, 1995, to Koger et al. describes a rotatable drive shaft of an ultrasound imaging device having a tubular body and a nose member which includes the ultrasound imaging device and connected to the rotatable drive shaft for rotation to obtain different internal views, for example, of a blood vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,724, issued Nov. 14, 1995 to Sliwa, Jr. et al. discloses a compact rotationally steerable ultrasound transducer having a circular track or a carrier band operable to rotate a multi-element transducer, for example, for transesophegeal echocardiography.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,118,531, issued Oct. 10, 2006, to Krill describes an ingestible medical payload carrying capsule with wireless, e.g. ultrasonic, communication to transducers placed on a patient. The capsule may deliver medication or contain imaging apparatus such as an optical camera and/or a transducer with a pulse driver for internal acoustic pulse illumination and external high resolution sonogram imaging and detection.
U.S. Published Patent Application, US 2007/0066894 to Bartol et al., published Mar. 22, 2007, describes a remote wireless control device for an ultrasound machine and method. The remote wireless control device includes a subset of controls present on larger apparatus including a sonogram display. A smaller mobile unit communicates with the larger unit and may be more easily used bed-side than the larger apparatus.
U.S. Published Patent Application, US 2008/0208057 to Hoctor et al., published Aug. 28, 2008, discloses a method and apparatus for non-invasive ultrasonic fetal rate monitoring whereby a cMUT (capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer) patch adheres to a mother's abdomen and cMUT sub-elements may be grouped together using a reconfigurable electronic switching network, for example, to actuate annular arrays of sub-elements per FIGS. 5, 7 and 8.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,637,865 to Iddan et al. of Dec. 29, 2009, describes an in vivo imaging device that is, for example, substantially spherical in shape (although it may be ellipsoidal) and may be swallowed. It may be weighted intentionally so that it is oriented by the pull of gravity as the device travels through a gastro-intestinal tract. In one embodiment, the field of view of a CMOS or CCD image sensor camera may be 80-90 degrees or even 80-140 degrees with a focus distance of between 0 to 40 mm (or slightly less than two inches). Power may be provided by silver oxide, lithium or other electrochemical cells having a high energy density or induced from an external source.
WO 2007/014292 A2, published Feb. 1, 2007, discloses an ultrasound apparatus where an angularly rotating transducer head enables a cylinder roller to move back and forth by a rotating motor at an angle of −45 degrees to +45 degrees on the tissue surface. An embodiment of a volumetric scanning probe 1500 is depicted in FIGS. 15A-15B in top view and a side cut-away view. A transducer head 1508 is mounted at the periphery of a cylindrical roller 1504 driven by a motor/actuator in a manner that angularly sweeps the cylindrical roller 1504 back and forth between about −45 degrees and +45 relative to a normal to the tissue surface.
Further, ultrasound has trouble penetrating bone and, thus, for example, ultrasound imaging of the brain and heart area are limited, for example, by the skull bone and the ribs, respectively. Ultrasound also does not perform well when there is gas present (as in the gastrointestinal tract and lungs). Still further, a highly skilled and experienced ultrasound operator is necessary to obtain quality images. These drawbacks do not, however, limit the usefulness of ultrasound as a medical diagnostic and treatment tool.